Arsenal striker Nicklas Bendtner has revealed he clashed with Hull City midfielder George Boateng before the Dutchman's dismissal on Saturday.

Bendtner was all smiles after his late winner, but he was not so happy with Boateng. The Tigers skipper was fortunate to escape with a mere booking for poking Bendtner in the eye in a 39th minute bust-up.

But his reprieve lasted just six minutes before he received his second yellow for a studs-up foul on Arsenal full-back Bacary Sagna.

Bendtner admitted: "My eye is okay now but I wasn't happy. I said to him 'If you want something, you have to be fair about it. You don't poke someone in the eye when the referee isn't looking'.

"He got upset about that and a few minutes later he took it out on Bacary and rightly got a red card.

"The referee had no choice. It was a poor challenge, as you can see from the stud marks right across Bac's knee.

"We were lucky that we didn't suffer another serious injury like we did at Stoke two weeks ago. Referees have to get together and discuss how they are going to deal with these incidents."

The unpredictable Bendtner has now scored six goals in his last five games, including that Champions League hat-trick against Porto.

So he was even happy to joke about his awful finishing during last week's home win over Burnley.

He said: "I've had five games where I've scored six goals and one game where I could have scored five and got none. I'm back! Everyone wrote Arsenal off after we had lost to Manchester United and Chelsea a month ago.

"But we have proved that no matter how much people try to beat us down, we will always come back at them."